Sheepshanks
by Shadow Bunny Warrior
Summary: Conflict can sometimes bring about some of the best words... Especially words with obscure meanings. Sebastian uses a word that Ciel doesn't know. What does it even mean? A small, stupid one-shot... *Shadow*
"Really Sebastian," Ciel grumbled, completely annoyed, "This is not necessary."

He glared up at his butler, who smirked at his young master's discomfort. After a nasty tumble down the stairs last week, Sebastian had taken to carrying the young boy wherever and whenever he walked about.

This behaviour hadn't been very amusing to begin with for Ciel and it was even less now. Especially, since the other servants had found it absolutely adorable. That made Ciel, who had enough problems with being taken seriously (being fourteen yet having the title of Earl made respect hard to come by), very unamused.

"It is necessary, young master," replied Sebastian. His voice was velvety and smooth, but it held a definitive tone of enjoyment. Ciel squirmed in Sebastian's arms, but the butler expected such a childish maneuver and compensated for it.

"Put me down, Sebastian," Ciel said in a voice so low it would make most people shiver in fright. But, Sebastian wasn't a "people". And the young boy's threatening tone landed on deaf ears. Finally, they reached their destination and Ciel stopped resisting for a moment.

Sebastian carefully placed Ciel down on his feet, as though he were a fragile porcelain doll. The second his feet were steadily on the ground, Ciel pulled back his hand and slapped Sebastian. But th hand never connected. Instead it was stopped only millimeters from the butler's cold, but amused smirk.

"Really Ciel," Sebastian sighed, as though having gone through this many times before. Actually, he had gone through this many times before... The at least twice a day fo the entire week, actually. "Resorting to physical violence is somthing only child would do."

Ciel glared indignatiously. Then, he whirled around and busied himself in paperwork. Sebastian felt a smile creep onto his face, but he forced it away. Slowly, he strode over to his young master's side.

"May I get you anything, master?" he asked gently, teasingly. The boy bristled a little and Sebastian grinned slightly. It was fun to get under the boy's skin. Especially, when the boy made himself an easy target.

"Yes," said the boy, agrivation seeping from his very pores, " Get me something sweet... And don't carry me around anymore."

"The first is easy, my lord. The second request, however, may not be possible. After all, as a butler, I can't allow harm to befall my lord. The best way to do that is to keep you close."

"It wouldn't cause me any harm to be walking around the mansion, Sebastian. And besides, the role if a butler doesn't include carrying me around everywhere."

"It's the only way to keep you from harm, my Lord. I can't help that you are so sheepshank."

"Sheepshank? Really Sebastian. Now is not the time to create a new word. That would be rather childish, yes?" Ciel's tone dipped to condescending and triumphant. Finally, he had been able to throw some of the demon's words back at him!... Or so he thought.

Sebastian disappeared in a blink of an eye and reappeared with a giant dictionary in hand. Ciel noted that it was from his own private collection. He didn't bothe wondering how the butler had gone all the way down to the library and back in such a quick time. After all, Sebastian could do anything if he required it.

With a fancy flourish, Sebastian opened the book to the correct page. Ciel internally shook his head. If this was a manga, Ciel thought, he would surely be surrounded by flowers and sparkles. Not that Ciel read manga often...

In only a few seconds, Sebastian found the correct page and pushed on his paur of reading glasses. "Sheepshank: an idiot"

"Let me see," Ciel said angrily, his hand outstretched for the large book. Sebastian, instead of handing the heavy tome to his master, kneeled down and held the book in both his hands, like a stand. Ciel glared, but did nothing.

Sure enough, "sheepshank" was right there, clearly listed in black on white. He also noted that Sebastian had used a lesser known definition; the more common being "a knot uses to temporarily shorten ropes". He sighed softly in defeat. How had he been outsmarted? But came back to himself rather quickly.

Finally, he knew what he had to do. Sebastian would have to stop. Slowly, he raised his hand to the eyepatch that always covered his right eye. His cursed right eye. As he uncovered it, he sternly said, "Sebastian. You will not carry me within my own manor unless specifically told to do so."

"Yes, my lord," came the reply, sincere as any demon can be. Sebastian got up from his kneeling position and began walking away. His master's first request still needed to be resolved. He turned and bowed again to Ciel as he left the room and closed the door.

However, instead of heading off right away, he lingered outside the door.

Inside, he heard Ciel grumble a little before walking over to his desk. Then, he tripped over an untied shoelace and fell with a crash onto the floor beside his chair. Sebastian chuckled slightly, "sheepshank."

* * *

 **Okay. Okay. I know this story is really stupid... And totally out of character... I'm sorry.**

 **But you have to admit, sheepshank is not a very common word and kinda sounds funny... Especially coming from the oh-so-proper Sebastian, yes?**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading it. I hope you enjoyed this little one-shot.**

 **Favourites are nice; Reviews are too kind; and constructive criticism helps me improve. See ya!**

 **... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...**

 **(*Note: The definition I found for this isn't in most dictionaries and is out of the 27 different dictionaries I checked, I only found this definition in one. So sorry if you tried to look up the word and couldn't find the same meaning as the one I used. But I didn't make it up, at least...*)**


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